Brute force

Easily larger than a buzzard, with a whopping, meat-cleaver bill, this is our most impressive gull. But it could do with a few more friends – pinching food from hapless cormorants, or wolfing down defenceless puffins, is not a good look. During summer, great black-backs are thinly spread around our coasts. So, it’s in winter, when many birds move inland and visiting migrants swell the population threefold, that you’re most likely to spot these gulls. One place they love is landfill sites, and nature writer Tim Dee explores this in his new book, Landfill.

TOP TIP Watch an identification video at bto.org/about-birds/bird-id